“It might not seem like it, but I’ve been protecting you from the shadows.”
That earned him a scathing look. “Is that why you sent Inara and Lowen to keep tabs on me?”
Is that what he called “protection”?
“Embedding spies within my household doesn’t endear you to me,” I spat.
“You’re being too sensitive,” Brin asserted with a matter of fact calm that I found charming when coming from someone like Connor but irritating from the man in front of me. “The mad queen and her consort were only supposed to “keep tabs on you,” as you put it, from afar. That she became a member of your House was her own decision and had nothing to do with me.”
Did he think that somehow made things okay? That she never had orders to become my friend?
It didn’t.
“What are you doing here?” I snapped, changing the subject before I did something unwise. Like throw a pillow at his head.
“Muiredach is here.” Seeing my blank look, he expanded. “The Summer King.”
“I know who he is.”
Of course, Brin wasn’t here for me. I wasn’t his priority. Muiredach was. I was just the poor sap that got caught in the middle. A stop on his way to somewhere else.
“Also, your grandfather and I wish to speak to you,” Brin added, almost as an afterthought.
“Oh, is that all?”
“For now.”
I gave bio-dad a fake smile. “As you can see, I’m a little busy.”
“Yes, almost getting assassinated,” Brin said, causing the smile to drop from my face.
“What—”
My forehead furrowed as a pocket of shadow that I’d thought was a product of the room’s poor lighting pulled back to reveal several bodies. All Fae.
Brin’s smile was humorless. “I suggest you take this meeting, daughter.”
My brain was still trying to process what was happening when darkness boiled from Brin’s shadow. It swarmed over me before I could react.
My startled squeak was cut off as I plunged into a world of ice and night.
Brin’s form swam toward me through the gloom. His appearance different than the one he’d shown me in the room.
He was Brin. But he was also more.
Like an iceberg. Above the ocean, one thing. Beneath the waves, something else was revealed.
It was Brin’s face and body, just a more alien version of him. A long cape of darkness extended into the shadows behind him. Vast and immense like the night sky.
No wonder Brin was considered one of the most dangerous supernaturals in the world. The shadows showed me the truth of what he was. A creature that was never human. Born of darkness and shadow. Meant to thrive where the light never touched. An eldritch being like the one I’d encountered in the Summer Lands.
This was who’d contributed to my genetic makeup. No wonder my magic never played by the rules.
I was surprised to be as normal as I was.
No words were spoken between us but I caught his voice nonetheless.
Follow.
